We had great day on our T as well. You might want to post your question to the Tornado list. Not a lot of Houltons around. Maybe someone there will have knowledge of them.
-- Pete Knapp
Schodack landing,NY
Goodall Viper,AHPC Viper,Nacra I20 --
I wonder who make good anchors? As an engineer I would like to know what steel type is used,, UTS etc. Once a sailing engineer, always a sailing engineer.
Not sure about Tornado's but mysteres (originally designed after the Tornado and created at Sailcraft Canada) use a regular chainplate with a 4" (estimate) round bar welded to it
I have 2 bow tangs at home (purchased years ago just for this occasion) and will take pics when I get home.
the chainplate is bolted to internally to a plate and epoxied into the corner of the hull
I have broken off a single side stay plate (at the base) and replaced both a few years ago
3 weeks ago I broke off a bow tang (while sailing) ... was able to secure the bow cable by wrapping a line around my hull a few times and securing it to my furler. Was able to get towed in by a friend - was an exciting day :)
My T is a last generation Marstrom, so I probably can't give you much information directly from that boat, but...
There is a version of the Houlton plans which includes more details regarding hardware and construction. In that set of plans they state that the bow tang is an RWO-230.
It looks like RWO has changed their numbering scheme, but R2300 appears to be right. I'd verify with RWO.